City Councilmen Say They Get No Respect From Legal Bureau

Bethlehem City Council President Paul Calvo has written City Solicitor Joseph Leeson complaining of "a complete lack of respect" by the city legal bureau for the needs of the legislative body.

The gist of the Dec. 19 letter is supported by all seven council members, according to the memorandum, although several councilmen said yesterday they are wary of the tone or manner of the language at certain points.

Particularly, the statement that "generally speaking, we perceive that there is a complete lack of respect for the office of councilman" on the part of city attorneys caused some concern for Councilmen Jack Lawrence, Otto Ehrsam Jr. and George Karabin.

While all agreed that there has been a problem, essentially in obtaining answers to legal questions in a reasonable amount of time - and even after repeated requests - Lawrence said, "I couldn't disagree more strongly" with the reference to "complete lack of respect."

"I've never been shown anything but complete respect" from the bureau, Lawrence said, "and I didn't hear anything that evening about a lack of respect," he said of a Dec. 6 executive session on the 1985 budget, when council members agreed to send the letter. "We didn't see the letter before it was sent," Lawrence said.

Lawrence said he's always directed his legal questions directly to the bureau, and that, while he personally had no particular problems, he was aware that other members had concerns. He said he agreed to the letter idea as a means of ironing out the problems. However, he understood the matter would be handled more privately.

Four other council members contacted yesterday said they perceived continuing problems in getting prompt responses from the legal bureau.

Richard Szulborski allowed that the letter "might have a strong tone," but he said that considering that several members sometimes had to make two or more requests for material and still hadn't gotten responses, "I think it might be fair" to charge lack of respect.

Szulborski pointed out the administration always seems to get answers quickly enough. "When the mayor (Paul Marcincin) wanted to know if he could run again, he got the response right away," Szulborski said. Marcincin is considering running for a third term.

But the letter indicates that political concerns have nothing to do with the problem. Calvo has disagreed with Leeson over whether city lawyers should work to uphold a 1973 city ordinance limiting mayoral terms to two, with Leeson sticking to a ruling by Asst. City Solicitor Richard Boyer that only the State Legislature has the authority to limit terms of office.

The letter points to several examples in which legislators waited in vain for legal work, and goes on to say, "We must point out that these examples have nothing to do with requests for politically sensitive legal opinions; rather, they involve legislative activity that requires support from the legal staff."

Leeson said he could not say whether any political motivations are inherent in the letter, but several council members said they did not think so.

"It's unfortunate the two matters are coinciding," Ehrsam said of the Calvo-Leeson disagreement, expressed publicly at a recent council meeting, and the letter. "I think that's a coincidence."

Ehrsam also agrees the tone of the letter is "rather strong," but said, "Hopefully, it will help in resolving some of the problems."

Szulborski also said he believed political concerns to be totally unrelated and accounted for the serious tone of the letter by saying, "We don't get any results (when being diplomatic)."

Marcincin said he disagrees with the letter, pointing out that he allows the city clerk to sit in on all staff meetings where legal matters are discussed openly and that the results are reported to council through the clerk's minutes.

Leeson said he, Boyer and the other assistant solicitor, Kevin Kelleher, have always tried to respond to council inquiries as quickly as possible, and he denied that any lack of respect has existed during his tenure.

What concerns council most, the letter states, is that "we no longer receive even such minimum services as the drafting of legislation and amendments. When materialemanates from the law bureau, it is often late, incomplete, or inaccurate."

The letter mentions incidents in which a recent tax abatement ordinance was delayed "because Mr. Boyer did not have the changes in the proper form, nor . . . did they meet the agenda deadline."

Leeson said a legal secretary's vacation and several related misunderstandin gs caused the delay in that case. Responding to charges that responses have been slow in coming on an easement matter and on a street vacation agreement, Leeson said one matter was held up in the engineering bureau and, in the other, no written response was made, although the matter was resolved by Boyer.

"I disagree completely" that council requests are given a low-priority status by the legal bureau, Leeson said. "That's completely untrue."

Marcincin said it is only natural that "95 percent" of the legal bureau's work is for the administration. Asked whether council as a watchdog over the administration should have independent legal counsel, Marcincin said the subject was discussed many times during his time on council, but that no lawyer was hired specifically for the legislators. Council would have to initiate such an action if it wishes, he said.

Councilman James Delgrosso said the issue is discussed often, and that he has always supported independent legal counsel for the two bodies out of principle. The matter "has been brought up many times, but it's never been discussed in depth. Nobody's willing to say, 'Let's do it.' Maybe the time has come," Delgrosso said.